$40 billion for Booze, cigarette, and drug addicts?

[tracy]

Re: RE: $40 billion for Booze, cigarette, and drug addicts?

In that case, I would also like a study seeing how health is impacted by those waits and how many of those people could have just made an appointment with their doctor or gone to a walk in clinic rather than clogging up the emergency room. Consumers aren't always just victims of waiting times, they are often the cause.

If I have an emergency I can't run into my Doctors office and expect to be seen....they have appointments with other people and are often late with those as it is. I should go to emergency and get prompt treatment.

The problem comes when my version of prompt meets their version of prompt.

In Ontario there are planning to get ride of walk-in clinics altogether. They are too expensive. (This is according to my Doctor)

IF you have an emergency being the key there. And I'm sure if you were there for an emergency (trouble breathing, chest pain, accident victims, bleeding severely, etc) you would get prompt treatment. That's the reason I have a problem with just saying wait times average X. You would probably be surprised at how many people show up to emergency rooms with non-emergency problems. I remember as a student I had to do the history on a patient and the first question is of course to ask what brought her there. She said she was having cramps. Question two was how long has this been a problem. "Oh, on and off for a few months" :roll: It was ridiculous. She needed a laxative. They also routinely saw flu patients wanting antibiotics, women wanting pregnancy tests, etc.

I don't know why your doc says walk in clinics are too expensive, they are a lot cheaper than emergency room visits. They are usually staffed with GPs (cheaper than emergency specialists) and RPNs or medical assistants (cheaper than RNs) and use much less staff and equipment and tests than an emergency room uses. They are also good at keeping docs who don't want the hassle of their own practice.

Kelowna is facing the same problems as nearby Kamloops (a population that's grown while the emergency room hasn't). I know Kamloops hospital finally started construction to make a larger emergency room recently. Of course, that probably won't solve the larger reason behind wait times (staff shortages). Last I looked they were still only hiring experienced ER nurses, proving that beggars can be choosers.

 

[Jay]

My Doctor told me the Ontario government was planning on removing as many clinics as possible and setting up associations between different Doctors etc to relieve to pressure from clinics and ER. I don't remember exactly what he said.

We also have a Doctor shortage in the city I live in and there are a good many people without family doctors so ER is an option for those people....you would expect to be able to get good prompt service form a socialized medical industry...well that's the myth anyways.

Perhaps when the old folks die off we will be able to bring some normality to the system, and with the way they run the health system up here, that might be sooner than we expect....

 

[tracy]

Complaining about not getting prompt treatment for non-emergecy conditions in an emergency room is like complaining that your car didn't cook you dinner last night. People don't seem to understand that it was never meant to provide that service.

In response to this ongoing problem, several emergency rooms have started adding a "clinic" like portion. I can understand people using it in small towns without clinics, but most cities of a certain size have walk in clinics for people without family doctors. I used the family medicine clinic when I lived in Toronto, I use a clinic here. I haven't had a regular doctor since I left BC, but it isn't a problem.

BTW, I think that comment about dying off younger because of the health system is silly at best. Canada's life expectancy is still pretty good (higher than some places without evil socialist systems even!)